Summer Camp...Beninese Style

For the last 2 weeks I have workin’ to get kids to THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX! So where was I? Science, Art, and Engineering CAMP!

The camp was organized by NoviAfrica, a Beninese NGO that has partners in America, and 30 girls and 30 boys from 12 different villages were chosen by the NGO Plan Benin (they work to support education and children’s rights) to participate in this totally original camp in southern Benin. Myself along with 2 other PC volunteers chose to help out and we were the “animators”/teachers for the classes. Elaina chose science, Bailey taught Engineering, and I taught ART! I know what you’re thinking…”Lauren, you didn’t go to Benin to teach art, right?” No, but I did come here to teach kids things that they may never have the chance to learn again, hence the artistic aspect of my last 2 weeks of work.

The education system here in Benin is quite different from America’s. Students are rarely able to do hands-on projects where they apply the knowledge they have spent hours memorizing. That is where this amazing camp has succeeded; it has given these students the chance to be creators and thinkers, and not just repeaters.

Here is a little information about the projects we did in each class: Science class made bottle rockets, terrariums, xylophones, hot air balloons, solar distillation...

Engineering class made solar cookers, biogas (mixed cow manure, cabbage, and water and connected the bottle to a balloon to capture the methane and it worked!), wind turbine that could light-up a lightbulb, steamboat….

Art class made paper mache balloons, practiced sculpture with the infamous flour/salt/water mixture, did many drawings, worked in teams to complete a puzzle, and painted a mural at the nearby primary school…

We also made mudstoves (more efficient stoves than the usual 3 stone method and made of clay) for families in the village as a community service project.

The most interesting thing, and perhaps it sounds boring, was to have the kids complete a 100 piece puzzle in teams. They were given about an hour and no teams actually finished. Why? Well, remember the shape and color matching games that you did since age 2? Those don’t exist here, therefore this puzzle was perhaps the first time these kids were asked to match shapes and colors to create a picture. It was fascinating to see how they went about putting it together and also very frustrating. In the end, they worked incredibly hard to get it together and were so proud to have accomplished it.

Drawing is always a great activity here because the students not only love to use the colored markers, which they don’t see in school often, but they love to copy what their neighbor is drawing. This was so confusing to me because originality is such an important concept for us but here, students struggle to come up with things to draw. They use rulers at school (heaven forbid your writing is a little crooked), so I saw a lot of houses and symmetrical drawings. By the end of the first week I had to ban rulers from the classroom to show that art does not have to be perfect all the time.

This camp was more than just 2 weeks of teaching kids; it was a chance to work together with motivated Beninese entrepreneurs.

I could go on for days about this camp but I think the pictures will do it more justice:

https://picasaweb.google.com/laurensmith6140/ScienceArtAndEngineeringCAMP?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCL3uj8bMw7iJQQ&feat=directlink

PS My latrine project is still online and will be until I raise $8,400 :) Donate if ya can at www.peacecorps.gov/donate and enter the project number 680-215!

Merci beaucoup

Paix et amour